| I don't really know how you should answer your boss's request. You should
| probably be asking him "exactly" WHY it is he things you aren't producing
| enough. Asking him such a question is completely legitimate since he has
| already evaluated your current output. If he can give you a respectable
| answer, then you'll be better qualified to give him "your" goal for the year.
| Until then, you'll just be shooting blanks in the dark.

They always want more no matter what. With experience, more really can be
achieved. The question is how to put it to numbers that management can see
as representing "more" without them having to know what programming is.
This is, of course, one of the major problems in business. Managers do
generally know what selling is, and can fully understand what a goal of
10% more sales means. But those same managers don't usually understand
programming, and don't understand that those of us who do are not using
quantifications like that; we'll usually using quality.

Ask management how it is they go about measuring the quality of services
or products they sell. Just be prepared for the managers that say that if
the quality is higher than what is needed, that it should be cut back to
save more money.

Look at what the problems of the business actually are, and try to find
what programming can do to address it. The biggest problem is cost, and
that is usually the hardest measurement because it might mean doing the
same work with fewer people who are also at the same time now paranoid
because someone got canned. If someone does suggest that, you might be
able to fight it with the statement "the economy is getting better now,
and as soon as jobs start to pick up, programmers with experience will
be leaving if they are paranoid because we have let people go".